When I think about it, things like "convenience stores" are truly convenient. In general you can get the necessary things to live on, and more than that, I'm delighted that they do 24-hour business.

In my neighbourhood, even the convenience stores as much as three blocks apart from each other differ greatly in goods per store. However, until now I didn't choose a store based on stocking products I like. Right, it was distance. Even though the closer ones could be surpassed in the food that I like. Up until a few days ago, I was certainly that way, but next time for sure, I'll make my way to a store a little farther...

I was troubled as usual while sitting at my computer desk. Taking a short break at a good point in my work and casually peeking around at various websites, what troubled me was that I had to decide whether or not to go to the convenience store. It was already past 3 o'clock at night, and if I laid in bed to read a book in the faint light, could I greet the morning like that? Should I sleep, or should I sleep after I eat a little something? I was being bothered by very trivial concerns. If I think about it, I hadn't eaten anything other than coffee yet. Beginning to worry, I took my wallet and went out in only the clothes I was wearing, starting to walk to the convenience store as though I was dragging my heavy feet.

Although it had already long passed the time of night when plants fall asleep, I could hear the incessant buzzing of cicadas. Along the way I was looking down and thinking things like 'Can I complain to the cicadas that they make quite a large amount of noise in such a short lifetime?' And just like that, I approached the lighting of a familiar convenience store.

When I opened the symmetrical glass door, for some reason I felt an atmosphere different from usual. I subconsciously glanced toward the young man and woman sales clerk who were chatting pleasantly at the register. The guy's hair was dyed brown, and tied up firmly, like an advertisement picture for a Host Club I happened to see in Shinjuku Kabukicho, whoever it was being shown to. The girl was just like a character in The Rose Of Versailles, with intense, even curls in her long hair, which she was toying with the index finger of her right hand.

Huh? They seemed to be recently employed new faces, as I was seeing these employees for the first time.
'You can't make a girl work this late in the night... is that really okay?' I thought, worrying about it, but as though they didn't even notice me while I was thinking like that, there was no "Welcome" or "Good evening"...

I was a little irritated, but they were adults after all. Ah, this can solely be blamed on youth. I smiled and started looking for the shelf with things like onigiri and sandwiches. In the meantime the two clerks kept talking, but when I brought a hotdog and unsweetened coffee to the register, their conversation stopped as I expected, and they scanned the barcodes of the goods I handed over, then put them in a plastic bag.

'When a customer comes up you should say something!' I thought, irritated again, but I endured it with some effort and instead said, "Excuse me... could you heat that please?"
The young man, seemingly bothered, took the hotdog from the bag and put it in the microwave oven, then pushed a button, starting to chat with the young lady again and ignoring me, who was waiting in front of the cash register.

The 'irritation' I felt a little while ago turned to anger, but the fact is, they were adults. 'Ah, no way. Surely they'll go out in society after this, and as much as they hate things like morals, it'll be driven into them for sure. Haste makes waste... Haste makes waste... Haste makes waste...'

Just as I was somehow at the brink of calming myself... BOOM!! Something exploded right in front of me. I looked, and it seemed that my hotdog which had only been put inside the microwave a while ago had exploded...

For some reason the clerk had put it in without opening the pouch, and the air inside expanded, so that the result was an explosion. Dumbfounded, I watched how the clerk would deal with it, but that clerk was knocked out of his wits by the action.

"Wow! That was seriously cool!!" Speaking quickly, he opened the door of the microwave in a hurry and looked inside, while the young girl seemed unconcerned, yawning and stretching as she gazed off into the distance. The next moment, he seemed to really not know what he should do, sending me an imploring glance. Meanwhile there was not even a single word of apology, but he finally seemed to think of something. He took the limp hotdog between his thumb and index fingers, and while I was observing right in front of him and wondering what he'd do with it, he did something very strange.

He actually threw that hotdog into the bag with my coffee, that he had laid on the register just a while ago, and what's more than that, he for some reason covered the bag in another bag and handed it to me. At that time I was really going beyond simple anger, completely in a miserable mood, and I violently grabbed the bag from him and left just like that. But, it's not as if I didn't hear something.
Behind my back, the sound of his tongue clicking like 'ch-ch'...

If I think back on it now, I'm certain that he was being kind in his own way. That is, when it was too hot for one bag he added a second bag. I had held onto meaningless misery and anger, and now I'm troubled again...

Should I go out? Or should I sleep?